Loretta LaRoche: Beware the perils of predictability

Monday

Oct 29, 2012 at 12:01 AMOct 29, 2012 at 7:06 PM

Columnist Loretta LaRoche suggests periodically reflecting on whether you’ve fallen into the trap of being repetitive. She says you’ll probably benefit if you challenge yourself to be more open to new ideas.

Loretta LaRoche

Researchers have long been studying the connection between health and the five major personality traits: agreeableness, extroversion, neuroticism, openness and conscientiousness.

A large body of research links neuroticism with poorer health and conscientiousness with superior health. I know that the scientific community has contributed vast amounts of information that has helped increase longevity. But I often wonder why so much time is spent on what I think is obvious.

An essentially neurotic individual is going to have more stress, and therefore be prone to more illness. People who are more conscientious will be more attentive to their mental and physical well-being.

What I found to be not only obvious but amusing was the finding that openness, which measures cognitive flexibility and the willingness to entertain novel ideas has emerged as a lifelong protective factor. I have spent much of my career advocating openness and one of its close cousins, creativity. They can help you deal with life’s inevitable ups and downs and contribute to a more fulfilling life.

The problem is that many people find removing themselves from certain ways of being to be incredibly stressful. Living day in and day out relying on specific routines and ideologies creates a comfort zone that’s difficult to pull away from. I witnessed this behavior in an individual I lived with for many years.

He planned every day as if he were in a military boot camp. If a suggestion was made to deviate from the schedule, he made every excuse possible as to why it could not change.

Even his breakfast was the same, day in and day out. I understand that predictability can make you feel safe, but it can also leave you unavailable to the vast array of possibilities that life has to offer. I think of life as a buffet, and my biggest problem is knowing that I will never live long enough to experience all of it.

Take some time every once in awhile to reflect on whether you have fallen into the trap of being repetitive. You don’t have to become your own three-ring circus, but you can challenge yourself to become more open to new ideas and ways of being.

Your brain is the command center for all bodily functions, and exercising it through being more creative may be one of the most important aspects of aging successfully, and handling stress.

If all of the above seems daunting and you insist on repeating the same behavior over and over, you may just want to live alone, buy a parrot, and train him to agree with everything you say.